Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ADOPTION

The legal transfer of a person from a family or slavery into another family, thereby improving the situation of the adopter and adoptee. The NT uses adoption imagery to depict the relationship between believers and God. Paul assumed that the image was first applied to God’s relationship with Israel (Rom. 9:4).

Adoption Formulas

Adoption in the ancient Near East was transacted before witnesses by the adopter declaring, “You are my son/daughter [henceforth ‘child’],” “He/she/PN is my child,” or “I called him/her/PN my child.” The child may respond with “You are my father/mother.” The same formulas were used to “legitimize” children fathered through secondary wives such as concubines or slaves. A negative counterpart to these formulas disowned and disinherited a child or, from the child’s side, repudiated the parents. The act of adoption was described as “make/take/designate/establish as a son.” The parents were obligated to raise the children by providing a trade and inheritance; children were required to obey the parent. Disobedient children were punished, disinherited, and sometimes sold back into slavery. Occasionally adopters would reverse this decision and readopt the disowned child.

Adoption and Adoption Imagery

Most OT “adoptions” are really legitimizations (e.g., Gen. 30:3-5) or intergenerational transferences of inheritance (e.g., 48:5-6). The examples closest to adoption include: Pharaoh’s daughter who, motivated solely by compassion, “took” Moses “as her son” (Exod. 2:10); Mordecai who “took” (NRSV “adopted”) his orphaned cousin Esther “as his own daughter” (Esth. 2:7; cf. v. 15).

Yahweh’s relationship with his people is sometimes couched in adoption imagery. Abraham’s election reflects adoption customs: “Yahweh, the God of heaven, . . . took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and . . . spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’ ” (Gen. 24:7). “Israel is my son, my firstborn” (Exod. 4:22) is an adoption formula, including the declaration of inheritance status. Israel’s redemption from Egypt is framed in adoption formulas in Exod. 6:6b-7: “I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them . . . I will take (REB ‘adopt’) you as my people, and I will be your God.” Hos.11:1-7 reads like an adoption repudiation contract, “When Israel was a child I loved him, since Egypt I called him ‘my son’ ” (v. 1). Yahweh adopted Israel out of Egyptian slavery, yet because Israel spurned Yahweh’s fatherly care (Hos 11:2-4) Yahweh will punish his disobedient son and send him back into slavery (i.e., Egypt and Assyria, vv. 5-7; cf. 1:9b, “You are not my people and I am not yours,” NRSV mg). But Yahweh’s compassion moves him to restore the relationship and take back his disowned son (Hos. 11:8-9; cf. 1:10[MT 2:1]; 2:23[25]). In Jer. 3:19 Yahweh’s plan to adopt Israel and grant him an inheritance was frustrated because of the son’s disobedience.

The Davidic king was declared Yahweh’s son by adoption (2 Sam. 7:14) in a public installation ceremony during which Yahweh’s decree is announced, “You are my son; today I have begotten you” (Ps. 2:7). The king responds “you are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation!” (Ps. 89:26[27]). As God’s son he bears responsibility for the well-being of God’s people and their land (Ps. 72:2-7). God also appoints him as firstborn of kings (Ps. 89:27[28]), in whom the commission given to the ancestors is fulfilled, that “all nations be blessed in him” (Ps. 72:17; cf. Gen. 12:2-3). When this divine decree was applied to Jesus (Mark 1:11; 9:7) his role as Davidic Messiah was emphasized, not his adoption.

Paul declares that believers are delivered from slavery and become children (“sons”) of God by being incorporated into Christ, God’s son, through the work of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:26; Rom. 8:14-16). The children of God are delivered from slavery to sin and death (Rom. 6), the law’s condemnation and the flesh (7:4–8:14), and elemental spirits (Gal. 4:8-9). The Spirit enables them to acknowledge their adoption through the cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:14-15; Gal. 4:5-6). But the adoption is not complete until the full revelation of God’s new creation. In the present suffering they await their final glorious bodily adoption as joint heirs with Christ, “the firstborn within a large family,” into whose image they are being transformed (Rom. 8:18-29; Gal. 6:15; cf. 2 Cor. 5:17). Rev. 21:7 uses the adoption formula to make a related point: “Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.”

The incorporation of the Gentiles into the heritage of Israel, now manifested in the redemption of Christ, is God’s work of adoption (Eph. 1:5ff.; cf. 2:11-22). Likewise, Hosea’s adoption formulas are used to connote God’s inclusion of the Gentiles into his final work of mercy revealed in Christ (Rom. 9:25; 1 Pet. 2:10).

Bibliography. L. J. Braaten, Parent-Child Imagery in Hosea (diss., Boston University, 1987); S. M. Paul, “Adoption Formulae: A Study of Cuneiform and Biblical Legal Clauses,” Maarav 2 (1979-80): 173-85; J. H. Tigay, “Adoption: Alleged Cases of Adoption in the Bible,” EncJud 2:298-301.

Laurie J. Braaten

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ADOPTION

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)